Lembongan

Lembongan

I arrived on the 21 and have been diving almost every day since. Obviously the days with the Manta Rays have been EPIC but that’s not all that’s epic around here. Big Fish has a building called the Yoga Shack and yoga is not exactly my cup of tea but other folks love it and show up mornings and evenings to join Shauna and others to chill, stretch, and workout. On other occasions the Yoga Shack is turned into an AWARENESS center and the public is invited to join their talks and slide shows on the mysteries of the sea or particular elements of the sea such as; ‘What is coral, animal or plant?’, ‘The Secret Life of Mantas’, and episodes of ‘Blue Planet’. Big Fish, Blue Corner and a growing number of dive companies have joined in with groups such as SEA SHEPARD and SHARK GUARDIAN to help people understand the ocean and the sea they dive in and love. If there wasn’t a problem there wouldn’t be these types of groups, let’s just hope it’s not too late.

I was diving with www.bigfishdiving.comback in January when a woman volunteered to work with the Manta research team under the Marine Megafauna Foundation.  She’s still here for another month and doing a most excellent job helping with talks and impromptu appearances swimming from one dive boat to another to help the unaware be aware of what they’ve just seen or will see. She also works closely with www.mantamatch.comas do some of the other guides and instructors at Big Fish Diving. She explains to divers what the research team needs such as, if you take a picture of the underside of a manta you can download it and enter it into a database where it is accumulated for a deeper understanding of the travel patterns, behavior, and conditions of mantas through time. Some have been photographed here in Lembongan, next to Bali and travel as far as Labuan Bajo, Flores. The problem is there is a part of their migration that goes through an area known for catching mantas for their gills.

A while back a Chinese Doctor said that manta (gills) were good for a lot of things such as immune system recovery, cancer prevention, sexual stamina, and progressive health. Well after research was done none of these statements had any worth. It was all trash talk but people believe what they want and the industry grew into something so ugly and ridiculous, the educated world started laughing. That didn’t stop the ignorance and now a manta alive in the wild might be worth millions of tourist dollars, but on the table or dried, powdered and drank is worth next to nothing. The Chinese want black market products such as Yatse-gumba; a fungus that grows out of the head of caterpillars in Nepal, shark fin soup, and manta ray gill sets. In reality shark fins have accumulated high levels of mercury, manta ray gills filter through the water and pick up micro-plastics, and caterpillars with mold growing out of their head sounds a bit desperate to me. When I was last in Nepal trekking the Lower Dolpa region I had a chance to try these little caterpillars with mold growing out of their head and I had a 2000-meter climb the next day. I wanted it to work. It didn’t. No matter what the mystics say no one beats death. The mystics die like everyone else no matter what they eat or tell you to eat.

The swell has really picked up around Lembongan and Gili Air. There have been storms separated by a few days and unfortunately I can’t get close enough to take any fantastic shots of these surfers.

I adopted a Manta Ray the other day. That means I donated to the Marine Megafauna Foundation and got to pick a Manta, name it, (Big Dipper, because there are black dots that look like the big dipper on her underside). When other people turn in photos of it I’ll be alerted to its location and condition. I donated $200.00 USD towards research and get a newsletter periodically and that sounds good to me. Marine Megafauna info@marinemegafauna.org.

While not diving with the Manta Rays we’ve been diving on the north side of Nusa Penita where guides and myself have noticed a massive bleaching of the corals in the area that came on rather recently. Fire corals and most others are sensitive to water temperature changes and like us we live in a certain temperature bracket that if it goes too high, the old and the young die. Coral is a little different because they can hibernate and wait for ideal temps to return, if they return.

My fin strap infections have subsided into craters with no reddening surrounding them. I have been diving a lot over the last six months and I finally got water trapped in my ear. With a bit of vinegar and water or alcohol in the ear it seems to have dislodged and I have one more day of diving here on Lembongan before returning to Sanur for a short spell of writing before heading out on another fine aquatic adventure. I’ll also be diving out of Sanur for a spell. There will be one more diving blog before some transitional blogs and then South Africa, the Sardine run and sharks. See you in the blue.

www.davidcdagley.com

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Go to my site listed below for more travels:

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Gili Air To Lembongan

Gili Air to Lembongan.

I looked around for a half hour to find an appropriate price to get off Gili Air. Some transport shops charge up to 600,000 rupiah and others are as low as 350,000 rupiah/ $35 USD. It’s worth looking around. I ended up at Marina kitty-corner to the pier boat ticket booth. After a quick goodbye to friends, acquaintances and staff I drifted off with a cup of tea in my hand. It wasn’t long before I was sitting on the express boat and speeding towards Bali. I was in Sanur by 1230 and in Jepun Bali Homestay by 1 o’clock. Not surprisingly a lot of the cheaper places, losmens, homestays and guest houses were full up but there are three on the alley I venture into every time I’m here and they haven’t failed me yet.  For Indonesia, the tourist season has just begun. Jepun Bali Homestay is fortunately or unfortunately across from Starbucks, an easy location target for a taxi driver with limited English. I did have to pay up because the room I got was for a minimum of four people and yet the owner remembered me and dropped the price. She recognized me for bringing her guests last January when I was in the area. I paid about $25.00/night for a kitchen, living room, a king size bed, air-con and a flat screen. The kitchen had all the utensils necessary to walk down to the Hardy Grocery Store and actually make dinner for myself for the first time in oh a couple years, I can’t actually remember the last time.

I called Glory Express ferry service to pick me up the following morning at 10 am for the 11 o’clock ferry to Lembongan. I only have one last errand to run and I have to come back for it, I’m going diving. My van had an Aussie couple and a woman from Paris. We bought our tickets at the Glory headquarters and I told the French woman to get suitcase tags so they know where they go. She didn’t know where she was staying so I described Big Fish Secret Garden and she got tags. A few of the dive guides have changed but the chilled atmosphere remains.

After a dip in the pool I got to writing for a while on manuscript stuff and I am very excited about the three books I’m working on besides the trilogy of ‘Cale Dixon’ and a sequel to ‘White Bars’. A writer with A.D.D., that’s just - I’m going diving. I went down to Blue Corner restaurant just at sunset for some Tex-Mex and a cold one while watching the sky turn plum red and the music quietly eased in over the waves. The foreground was beanbags and bodies then the channel between Lembongan and Bali. The volcanoes made a brief appearance and faded into black.

I got up to my alarm at 6am so I could make tea and do some early morning fresh mind writing while this part of the world gradually came around. First dive site was Manta Point (Bay) and I now know why it’s called that. There were by loose count 25-30 Mantas milling about, mostly males groups following females. Some of the females are pregnant. There are still fewer in numbers than ever before so it would be really nice if the Chinese would stop eating their gills and throwing the bodies back in the sea, that would be cool. I guess it’s all about education and awareness and less about mystic traditions.

Our second dive was Crystal Bay where we had lunch followed by a ‘small stuff ‘ dive. The center is sand but the slopes are sprinkled with coral outcrops and again a swaying current. Outside the bay, in the strait, the current rushes by making waves and white wash. I took some fun shots in the colder water and the visibility was also better than at Manta Point. In between storm surges the water has a chance to clear but the next storm is near and I dive when I can see these days.

I teamed up with the French woman and we went off to The Deck for their ‘Sunset Sessions’ with DJ, Glynn Tandy from the UK. The music was chill and we watched the tailings of a sunset behind a cloud front. The music was relaxed and the place pretty much packed out all the seats along the cliff edge.

Lucky me we dove Manta Point (Bay) again followed by Crystal Bay again. I didn’t mind, the Mantas are awesome and crystal Bay has a lot to offer in the way of small stuff. At Manta we did spend some time looking around for a Bamboo Shark that hangs out on one side of the cove. No luck on that but again lots of Mantas and I was in the right place at the right time.

The trip out is a bit bumpy with a swell coming in and all the surfers are very excited. It does a bit of a job of your spinal compressions but hey when you’re hanging out with such fine people from Canada, Argentina, Belgium, France, Finland, the States, hey, it’s all good.

I took a motorbike ride with some folks around the island and crossed a suspension bridge to Cennigan Island for lunch. The views were almost all good until I saw the cost of paradise. That put a major damper on the experience that I feel should be noted.

The swell off of Jenny’s restaurant and hotel were beautiful and empty. Most of the surfers had gone over to Lembongan to surf because these were too difficult to get to. At low tide the seaweed farmers are out in force gathering and drying their product for sale. They have plotted the seabed and it’s time.

We went down to Secret Beach and couldn’t swim because it was seriously a washing machine exploding on the cliffs all around. All in all it was a good exploration. We found lots of places where a traveler could seriously disappear in small quaint guesthouses and just absorb the down time.

I do a bit of time at blue Corner Bar and Restaurant about a kilometer down the road from Big Fish because the Internet connection is much more consistent and stronger, oh yeah, they also have cold beer and good food over-looking the beach and waves. Blue Corner is another dive shop like big Fish, working together with others promoting Ocean Education, Research, and Conservation. There are quite a few that are on the conservation wagon because it’s important for everyone to be aware.

I’m half way through my time here in Lembongan and will end here to give you another opportunity to see more underwater photos and see some more things going on in this section of the world at present.

www.davidcdagley.com

http://sbprabooks.com/davidcdagley/

Go to my site listed below for more travels;

www.davidcdagley.blogspot.com

Gili Air

Gili Air

After cruising the equator for two days and nights the two Argentinian ladies and I arrived at Gili Air pier and off we went. I didn’t have a hotel room or guesthouse or anything and I was tempted to follow them but they were walking away from the beach and I would have none of that. There was an open-air bar nearby and I walked in and talked to the locals about dive shops and places to stay. They said there were many. Most pointed down the beach and off I went. It didn’t take me long to run into 7 seas dive shop followed by a restaurant and a hotel with a dorm. 7 Seas it is. www.7seas-cottages.com. I pulled in and got a room and stopped moving for a minute.

I booked in for 4 nights/35 USD/night with an option on a 5^th. In the not-so-early morning I ventured down to the restaurant for breakfast and tea and watch the waves break on the point. It was just full moon with the tides up and the waves up to 2 meter.

 I heard Bali had some size surf as well, 3 meter and up. While the big boys paddle around on the outside the youth took advantage of a little more practice. Both breaks are always here so come surf, dive, eat good food and be surrounded by smiles beaming from tan people who found a touch of heaven.

I walked into the 7 Seas scuba shop and had a quick look around before asking about their dives. I signed up for 5. www.7seas.asia.com. The one we did first was rather nothing compared to where I had just been and the visibility was a mess but I had high hopes that it would get better. 7 seas diving has instructors for many Tech levels, open water, advanced, rescue and you can do your DMT/‘C’ here. The staff is competent, curious and eager to get in the water. If you dive with 7 seas they will do their best to get you on site with aqua critters and ship wrecks. I’ll dive with them again.

The evenings are calm and quiet verses Gili Trawangan, the next island. Gili ‘T’ has a bit of a reputation for being a party island. I didn’t want to go back. I had been there in 1989 with two friends when I biked all the islands out to Flores. There were only seven thatch bungalow places to stay and eat and at night we’d sit by a fire on the beach and listen to songs, guitars and other instruments. Mt. Rinjani rises into the clouds above Lombok. The way I saw it, one island is for a party and the other was more chillaxed. I listened to a local play guitar last night and chatted with a few French, Swedes, and Brits; all diving.

Back in the water the next day for two dives and the visibility was great. I didn’t see much big stuff at Shark Point besides turtles. There was at least one turtle per dive and sometimes up to 6. We checked out an old community pier off of Gili Menu. Menu lies between Air and T. The pier was used for transport and supply delivery. Fifteen years ago a big storm hit and it went down with everything on it, bikes, chains, tires, structures, whatever was on it. After 15 years corals have begun to grow coral and attract a good number of fish and turtles.

On another dive we happened across a recently sunk vessel with Government approval and it is fresh but also a good sign that someone up there is working for the oceans and animals we have displaced by dynamite and cyanide fishing and dropping anchors to and fro. Mooring lines are everywhere and that is a good thing.

There’s a group out there called PROJECTAWARE.ORG that has a few words I’d like to share; they have 10 tips for divers to protect the ocean planet. 1) Dive, 2) Give back, 3) Be an eco-tourist, 4) Shrink your carbon footprint, 5) Be a buoyancy expert (stay off the coral), 6) Be a role model, 7) Take only photos and leave only bubbles, 8) Protect underwater life, 9) Become a debris activist, 10) Make responsible seafood choices.

Me and a guide were at Hon’s Reef checking out lots coral outcrops and while going from one to another we came across a seahorse in the middle of seemingly no where hanging on a new shoot of soft coral or grass, there wasn’t much around. Now I’m properly puzzled. I got out of the water and sat at the shop for a bit and eventually asked, what’s your favorite dive to my guide and he responded, ‘Deep Turbo’. I asked if they were diving it soon and he said, tomorrow morning. So I added another day and another dive.

From the surface you can’t really see anything but with a GPS we were right on top of it, also other bubbles are a tell tale sign. We dove in and descended with no real vision of what we were into. It’s a pinnacle at about 30 to 40 meters. We were sort of lucky in the fact there wasn’t much current but then again that might have been a lot of fun too. My computer kept going off every time I went below 30 meters then I realized my decompression time was down to 3 minutes and started a very gradual climb over mounds and channels until we came across a sleeping white tip shark. He didn’t seem to mind us and we couldn’t go down and visit because our ‘deco’ time wouldn’t allow it. The visibility was around 30 meters.

The sun is out and I bought my next sea going ferry boat. I have traveled by boat all the way from Raja Ampat through the Spice Islands, Alor, off the coast of Timor, Flores, Lombok and now to Bali and Lembongan for more diving and writing a new manuscript that is a lot of fun to write.

I could stay here longer but the whole reason I’m coming this way at all is because there are just some things that have to be handled in person and the closest place for that is Bali.

www.davidcdagley.com

Go to my site listed below for more travels;

www.davidcdagley.blogspot.com